Why I'm Getting Dirty: I love it outside and hate to go in even when it's getting dark outside. It's more than incredibly rewarding when I go outside to pick and eat the crops I grow. Having something substantial to show for all the free time spent out there is nothing short of amazing.

Post a comment

Posted by: on June 1st, 2011 at 01:08 pm

If you’re not already getting your bimonthly issues of Urban Farm, you’re missing out on the guide on how to be more self-sufficient by growing some of your own food and treading lightly on the environment in the space you have. Articles include how-to projects, gardening basics, composting, beekeeping, roof-top gardening, preserving and freezing, and time and money-saving ideas. Subscribe today -- 1 year (6 issues) as low as $15.00.

So far we've got one Casper pumpkin that's holding on for dear life. The Jack-O-Lanterns died some time ago, and the Caspers overall just don't look too good. If it's not squash bugs and squash vine borers in the summer killing the pumpkins, it's pickle worms eating everything on them all year round. This is a hard crop to grow organically in Florida for sure. We're going to make a netting system held together with PVC pipes for next spring and see how that does.

This weekend will be the weekend to plant our fall stuff! I'm so excited! We started everything we wanted from seed about 10 days ago and everything has sprouted and looking good (except for the spinach plants, in which only 1 out of 20 seeds germinated). I think we've got a bad batch of spinach or something!

Nothing has sprouted and I have no idea why. We're going to start over again this weekend and start everything from seed again, except this time in small pots to get them off to a good start. On another note the pumpkins are going crazy and have completely taken over the area they are supposed to be in; it's mega awesome!

So we ripped practically everything out, and we planted Brussels Sprouts, Broccoli and Cauliflower. Once the temperature starts to go down we'll finish planting the rest of our fall crops (lettuce, squash, etc.)

This weekend will be super cleanup and replant weekend. Looks like the watermelon vines are done; not sure if they got some kind of disease or if they are just at the end of their season, but they shriveled up and died. I'll have to check the roots and make sure the root knot nematodes didn't make their way over to them.

We tore down all the dead Acorn vines (2 of them), and all of our Butternut squash vines, as well as the rest of the Jack-o-Lantern vines and planted new plants. We also tore out our summer squashes because they just weren't growing and planted some Pineapples in their place. Hopefully those will do better in the heat.